December 2008

Back in the olden days, newspaper and magazine editors would make paper planes from badly written press releases. Now they have the power of the delete button. It's a tough world out there. Here are a few tips for getting your press releases published.  Who's reading this? Think about who is going to read your news and use the language of the...

I loathe business bull and jargonese. And it seems the readers of the Daily Telegraph feel exactly the same way if recent correspondence with the broadsheet is anything to go by.       So here are some of the words and phrases that we love to hate. Use at your peril! Added bonus Co-worker First up Giving 110% Going forward Heads up Hearts and minds Hit the ground running Inclusive Ramp up Time challenged Singing from the same...

I was writing some copy the other day when I realised the exact phrase I was looking for was je ne sais quoi. This got me thinking about how many words and phrases we use that come from across the Channel.  Did you know that about 30% of the English language is derived from French? Mais non? Words like niche, blonde,...

I love the expression dangling modifier. But what is it? And is it catching?   A dangling modifier refers to a phrase which doesn't have a grammatical connection to the rest of the sentence. This can have hilarious consequences. Ok, it can be vaguely amusing:  Having been kicked in the air, the baby caught the ball. What was kicked? The ball or the...